Naturally, when my original Monday plans were cancelled, I decided to head up the hill for the first day it was open. Since the open space district had gone to the trouble to put a nice new trail in, the mountain bike was the way to go.
Oh, what a wonderful mellow morning. I parked at the Bald Mountain parking lot and headed up the ~4 mile new trail to the top. And a beautiful trail for climbing it was -- they somehow managed to map out a low-gradient (5-6%) mostly shaded singletrack through what I think of as hot, rocky, and brutally steep terrain. Magic.
There were an impressive number of people out enjoying the new trail, even on a weekday, but the trail was laid out with good sight lines so it was easy to avoid unduly surprising hikers or other bikes.
Oh, and the views were good too. Really quite a pleasant little 1100 foot climb.
The last little section near the top has some stairs, so they detour bikes over to the road for the last short stretch. You can see it is not far.
The cube on the summit is quite large -- see the little tiny people next to it? There is also a ceremonial circle on the other side, put in to recognize the significance of the site to the local Native Americans. A nice touch, and I appreciate that they've made it easy to see that the peak is not only home to good views, but has a bit of history to it as well.
On the way back down, I stopped at an interim viewpoint to enjoy the panorama once more.
The downhill was also pretty mellow -- this trail isn't really steep or technical enough to attract the crazy downhill crew, which is just as well to minimize user conflicts. Not being a super hardcore mountain biker, I actually really enjoy the relatively easy trails when they go through interesting terrain.
That being said, I can't help but know that the "right" way to approach this trail in the future is to park at the lower parking lot (at the intersection of Hicks and Mt. Umunhum Roads), ride in on Woods Trail, and then up the brutal climb up (dirt) Barlow Road before hitting the nice new Umunhum trail. Unless one is feeling lazy or is otherwise wrecked from some previous ride...
One other thing nagged me when I got home, however. Not only was that new trail open, but the road to the top was also open and freshly repaved, calling out to all road cyclists with any inclination to climb. There were clearly a lot of folks out on road bikes on Monday, and I knew I needed to go back and do it too.
A bit of background to this road: to get up to the top, you first have to climb Hicks Road, and then the spur of Mt. Umunhum road to the top. For years, cyclists were prevented from going above about 2800 feet by forbidding-looking signs and fencing put in to protect a piece of private property that the road ran through. Rumors abounded regarding the horrible fate one would suffer if the wrath of the residents was invoked. Even without making it up to the summit, the Hicks/Mt. Umunhum climb is said to be the hardest climb in the Bay Area, at least according to my reference book (Summerson's "Complete Guide to Climbing by Bike in California"). Some climbs like Hamilton are a bit higher and longer, but Hicks/Mt. Umunhum is brutally steep and not broken up with short descent sections on which one can rest.
Now, one can go to the top, so it's even more the hardest climb around. I had to go do it yesterday :)
The profile below is misleading, as it doesn't quite convey the steepness of the first mile (14% average, with locally steeper bits!). After that it eases up a bit, but throws in more steepness every time a rider starts to relax. I found I was riding pretty comfortably up to about 13%, and had to slowly grind for the parts that were more than that -- but this was surprisingly better than I expected given that I'm still working back into riding shape after summer vacation disruptions.
For reference, the "old" climb ended at about mile 9 on this map, about 600 feet in elevation below the actual summit. One should also note the flat stretch near the top; this is where the best views out to the ocean can be had. It's one of the more scenic patches of road I've ridden recently.
See, the second bike up to the top in a week!
As an aside, the open space volunteer coordinator pointed out on Monday that I submitted the first trail report ever for Umunhum, and after hearing that I went up the second time this week on another bike then wanted to know if I was going to scooter up the hill next. I figure I should go up on foot first before moving up to anything more exotic.
The views in all directions are pretty amazing. Here you see the cities of the South Bay, behind the ridge with the dirt climb to Mt El Sombroso.
Fine fall-ish colors on the vegetation looking over towards Lexington Reservoir (in the hole behind this hill). Incidentally, I know there is a road that theoretically goes along this ridge and connects in with Soda Springs Road, but it's all fenced off from both sides. Darned private property... I don't want to bug anyone, but really don't see the harm in letting bicyclists ride through.
Looking out over Lake Elsman over towards Monterey Bay. This is territory that you don't have a view of from very many accessible places. Incidentally, being up there on a bike means it is easier to stop and look out towards the ocean than it would be in a car -- no real pullouts for the cars here.
Looking out over towards Loma Prieta. There's also another dirt road that goes out in this direction that eventually connects in to Summit Road, which also isn't currently open to the public due to intervening private property (I asked the ranger). Ugh. I want loops. One step at a time, I guess -- at the end of the day, I am quite happy to see the new area at the summit opened!
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